Build your engineering team with English-ready developers who work in your timezone — at a fraction of US cost, with real salary data behind every role.
Up to 6–8 hours of daily overlap with US business hours — your engineers work alongside you.
Screened for English so code reviews, standups and planning happen in real time.
Every role shows USD-normalized compensation from our salary database — no guessing.
Agencies quote a single blended hourly rate. That rate hides two things you can check yourself: the statutory cost that sits on top of whatever gross salary you agree on, and how many hours of the day you actually get to work together. Both are below, per country, with the law each figure comes from.
| Country | Statutory cost over gross | Mandatory bonus | Paid leave, year one | Overlap with US hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chile | None | — | 15 days | up to 7h |
| Mexico | +5.00% | 0.5 month(s) | 12 days +25% | up to 8h |
| Argentina | +8.33% | 1 month(s) | 14 days | up to 7h |
| Colombia | +8.33% | 1 month(s) | 15 days | up to 9h |
| Uruguay | +8.33% | 1 month(s) | 20 days | up to 7h |
| Brazil | +11.11% | 1 month(s) | 30 days +33% | up to 7h |
Statutory cost covers mandatory bonuses and paid-leave premiums. Employer social security contributions are not included — they vary by salary band and are quoted separately. Each country page links the law the figures come from.
In most of Latin America, an annual bonus is a statutory entitlement, not a discretionary perk. Mexico's Federal Labour Law sets a minimum of fifteen days of salary. Brazil's 13º salário and Colombia's prima de servicios each equal a full month. Peru pays two: one in July and one in December, plus an extra statutory top-up. None of that is negotiable, and none of it shows up in a quoted hourly rate — it is already baked in, or it is missing.
Chile has no mandatory annual bonus and no holiday premium. The gross salary you agree on is close to the full statutory cost. That makes it the simplest country to budget for, and it is why a blended rate that averages across Latin America tends to overcharge for Chile and undercharge for Peru.
Colombia, Peru and Brazil fund severance as you go, through schemes the employer pays into monthly — cesantías, CTS and FGTS respectively. You are paying them whether or not anyone ever leaves. Countries without such a scheme concentrate the cost at termination instead, which is easier to budget but harder to absorb when it lands.
The hours in the last column are the part of a standard 9-to-6 day in that country that falls inside a standard 9-to-6 day in the US. That is the window where a code review, a standup or a production incident gets handled in real time instead of tomorrow. It is the whole argument for nearshore over offshore, and it is measurable rather than rhetorical.
Three arrangements are common, and the statutory costs above apply differently to each.
The engineer invoices you. No statutory bonuses, no paid leave, no severance fund. It is the cheapest on paper and the most exposed: most Latin American labour codes look at how the work actually happens, not at what the contract is called. Fixed hours, a company laptop, a direct manager and exclusivity are the signals that turn a contractor into an employee retroactively, with back-pay for everything in the table above.
Lowest cost per engineer once you are past a handful of hires, and the strongest retention, because the person has a local contract with local protections. It requires incorporating and running payroll in that country, which is why it rarely makes sense below roughly five to ten people in one place.
A third party employs the person on your behalf. You get compliant employment without an entity, and you pay a margin on top of the real cost — typically a fixed monthly fee per employee. The figures in the table are what the EOR is paying underneath; knowing them is how you tell a fair margin from an opaque one.
We do not employ anyone on your behalf and we do not resell engineers. We connect you with candidates and with specialised recruiters, and you pay a success fee when you actually hire. Which arrangement you use afterwards is your call — the cost data above is the same either way.
Building software with engineering talent in nearby countries that share your working hours. For US companies, that means Latin America — real-time collaboration instead of overnight handoffs.
Traditional outsourcing is often offshore and project-based with little overlap. Nearshore staff augmentation embeds vetted engineers into your team, in your timezone, working as an extension of it.
Two numbers matter: the gross salary you agree on, and the statutory cost on top of it, which ranges from nothing in Chile to roughly 18% in Peru. The table above breaks it down per country, with the law each figure comes from.
Because mandatory annual bonuses differ. Brazil and Colombia require a full extra month of salary per year; Mexico requires fifteen days; Peru requires two bonuses plus a statutory top-up; Chile requires none. Paid-leave premiums add to it in Mexico and Brazil. None of it is negotiable.
No. The figures cover mandatory bonuses and paid-leave premiums only. Employer social security contributions vary by salary band and are quoted separately — we would rather leave them out than publish an estimate next to a cited law.
You can, and many companies do, but most Latin American labour codes assess how the work actually happens rather than what the contract is called. Fixed hours, a direct manager and exclusivity are the signals that reclassify a contractor as an employee, with back-pay for every statutory entitlement.
Between six and eight hours for most of the region against US business hours — the table above shows it per country. That is the window where code review, standups and incidents happen live rather than tomorrow.
Neither. We connect you with candidates and with specialised recruiters, and you pay a success fee when you hire. Whether you then engage as contractor, direct employee or through an employer of record is your decision.